Relationship, and Mercedes, go over a cliff
The call came in to the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office at 5 p.m. on Feb. 26.
A woman told dispatch that her fiance pushed her Mercedes Benz over an embankment using heavy machinery. The call record says the woman didn’t know why he did it.
“He got angry with her and just apparently picked her car up with a skid steer and dropped it off an embankment,” said Undersheriff Dave Leib, looking over the case report.
No charges were filed in the incident after deputies determined that it was a civil matter. The incident was notable not just for its odd nature but also because it led to the couple filing for temporary protection orders against each other.
The Lakeside woman who made the incident report was Christin Didier, the 1997 Miss Montana USA who was sentenced Thursday in federal court for mail and insurance fraud.
According to documents filed in Flathead County District Court, an investigating deputy met Didier Feb. 26 to view the damage. He noted a car sitting at the bottom of the embankment. It had rollover damage and marks consistent with that of the nearby skid steer.
The vehicle was a Mercedes Benz 240D, as noted in a March 3 protection order Didier filed the following week against her fiance, Tanner Smith, in response to the car-tossing incident.
On March 11, Smith filed for his own protection order against Didier. He cited “3 years of psychological abuse” as part of his reasoning.
Smith requested that the order restrain Didier from seeing the couple’s 20-month-old child. Didier’s request is for both herself and the child against Smith.
District Judge David M. Ortley signed Didier’s protection order on March 3. A hearing to show cause is scheduled March 23 on Smith’s request, which is filed with the same judge.
Didier was sentenced by a federal judge Thursday on eight counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy. She was convicted of inflating the value of temporary housing to collect more than $120,000 in insurance payments.
She was sentenced to five years of probation and was ordered to pay $213,000 in restitution. The complex case had seen her convicted earlier, then acquitted by a judge, then ordered by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to be resentenced.
The case hinged on whether the insurance company was obligated to pay Didier an amount sufficient to maintain her standard of living in a mansion regardless of whether she used the money for that purpose or not. The appeals court ruled that the insurance company only had to reimburse actual expenses.
Reporter Matt Hudson can be reached at 758-4459 or mhudson@dailyinterlake.com.